Pirates' Paul Skenes Becomes Debate Between MLB, MLBPA

He took shots at MLB owners, who should listen to "Sell the Team" chants if they can't compete and that baseball has better competitive balance than other sports with a salary cap.

Meyer did address a question from Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the Skenes' incident and noted that small market teams have kept great talent, mentioning the Pirates signing rookie shortstop Konnor Griffin to a nine-year, $140 million contract, a franchise record.

He also showed support to Skenes, who is on the MLBPA eight-player executive subcommittee and that he will continue to fight for players and what they deserve.

"That's just not true," Meyer said. "I hear that, and what about Bobby Witt? What about Julio Rodriguez? What about JJ Wetherholt, who we just saw? What about Konnor Griffin and Kevin McGonigle? Samuel Basallo? Jackson Chourio? Corbin Carroll?,"

"So this notion that, "Oh my God, small market teams can't keep their players!", it's just not true. It's not true. They are keeping them. They are keeping them. And they can. And ones who choose not to, can afford to do it. They can afford to do it.

"I didn't read that article, but I heard something about that comment. I think it's a tremendous disservice to Paul. Paul is the ultimate professional. Paul loves the game. I don't know who made that comment, but it's a very flippant kind of comment. But we'll see.

"Players want to be treated fairly, and they want to play the teams that they think are trying to win. Whether big market, small market, they want to be in places where they and their families are comfortable, and they want to be convinced that the team is actually trying to win. ... If there's a team that's not trying to do that and not trying to provide the best experience for players, that team is going to suffer in trying to attract players.

"But there's nobody with more integrity than Paul Skenes. And at the end of the day, he's going to do what he needs to, right, using the rights that players and generations have fought for."

MLB Reinforces Support for Salary Cap

MLB and the 30 owners have shown support for a salary cap in their recent proposals to the MLBPA, which they of course rejected.

Manfred is the face of the front for a salary cap, which he and the owners argue is a key component of building the best competitive balance they can.

Manfred argued that the fans deserve more competitive balance and that they should be able to see players their team develops stick around and not depart for a bigger market.

This would essentially give the Pirates the best shot at keeping Skenes, instead of him heading to the Yankees or the Los Angeles Dodgers for a mega deal.

“I believe that in order for this game to reach its full potential, we need to continue to address concerns that our fans have," Manfred said. "Particularly concerns that go to the core of what we’re about, competitive balance. 

“We need to make sure that fans in markets at the beginning of the season have a realistic belief that their team has a chance to win. I think that we need a system where fans, particularly in smaller markets can have some hope. 

“The players that are signed and developed by their organization can actually stay there through free agency and honestly, I think we need a system where there is a more robust free agent market so if you don’t want to go to New York or Los Angeles, you have a realistic opportunity to get viable, free agent contract and I also think we have an obligation to our players to get into a system where salary growth in baseball is not the slowest amongst the four major professional sports leagues.”

Manfred sees the salary cap and the players' union's attitude towards it akin to how owners reacted to free agency when it came into baseball about 50 years ago.

He is confident that MLB and the owners are united and can earn a salary cap in the next CBA and give the fans what they are asking for.

“This is an interesting thing, that’s always puzzled me with why people think because one side of the negotiations is opposed to this, that it’s completely off the table," Manfred said. "Now 40 years ago, 50 years ago, the beginning of the salary cap opposition, you had owners say, ‘I’m never going to pay a player a million dollars.’ Doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen in a changed world, so that’s a very puzzling thing to me. 

"I do know this. I have an ownership group that is more united than any group in my entire time in baseball. I think they already proved it and believes in what I have been arguing for, and that is listening to our fans, trying to make changes that produces the best possible game that we can produce. I can’t give you a better answer than that"